Planting Trees, Photosynthesis, and Recycling

Finally got the tree out of my kitchen!

We soak the roots for about 15 minutes in our big purple tub. Daddy had already dug the whole last night so we filled it in with a mix of the existing dirt and gardening dirt. Then put mulch around the base to keep the ground around the trunk moist. We used this method on the nine trees we planted last year and we only lost one over the winter.

Ta-da! Tamarin and I discussed photosynthesis and looked at the diagrams in this book.

We read this book and I printed a journal page from this freebie on Currclick so that the girls could draw/write their ideas or what they have learned.

I'd never heard of Currclick. Looks like it has a ton of things to use and a lot are free!

Tamarin is on top of recycling now. She is checking everything and asking if we can recycle it. I love it! I used to recycle everything before we moved. I mean, to the point it drove my husband a little bonkers. Then with the move, pregnancy, farm stuff, etc I gave up, other than taking the aluminum cans to my grandfather. I'm excited to get back to it. What I used to do was take a load to my grandparent's every week. I'll have to see if there is a recycle center near here cause Capuchin now takes up the only previously vacant space in the car.....

Hitchcock's The Bees

Chris is laughing right now.

"I finally found something you're afraid of."

I'm not afraid.....

AHHH!!

.......................

I'm just a little freaked out.

Okay, if you think I'm over reacting I wish I could show you how many were INSIDE the bag. Then there are the hundreds swarming the porches and the kitchen window.

*does the creepy freakout dance most people do when they see spiders or mice*

We toyed with the idea of getting bees. Chris went to a bee keeper class last year.

I love honey. Today I realized. I don't like bees.

I always thought I was fine with bees. I let them land on me. I've never had a problem with them before even when they stung me I was still okay with the species on the whole.

Nope.... no...... no, no, no.

No bees in our future.

As soon as it was dark enough and most had left I went outside and threw that sack of dr pepper cans off the porch and watched it roll to the barn. I'm making Chris go to work early so he can stop by Grandpa's. He sells the aluminum cans to a recycle place.

*heeby geeby dance*

Still okay with bees on the whole, just not near my house.......

There's a Tree in My Kitchen

Happy Earth Week!

Yes, that's right. there is a tree in my kitchen. We were going to plant another apple tree for Earth Day, but the weather had other ideas and dipped below freezing the last couple nights. It's sitting in my kitchen waiting patiently. Here's what we've done so far this week:

Monday
Over breakfast, Ellie and I discussed pollution and that sometimes the air is so bad people can't even go outside without masks to protect them. We searched the internet for pictures of air pollution from factories. "This isn't real, right? This is what could  happen, right?"

I explained to her that this was what has happened in other countries. We discussed that we have laws here to curb toxic smog, but even here sometimes the air in big cities is really bad. On that note I send them outside on this beautiful day since it's about to turn ridiculous cold for this late in April.

We read The Lorax. I explained to her that the whole reason we have Earth Day is to teach children and people how the choices they make affect the earth. If we take without thinking or giving back there will eventually be nothing left.

"Like Wall-e." Thank you, Disney. "Yes, like Wall-e."

I sent them outside again and when they had enough we watched Wall-e and ate a very late lunch.

Tuesday

We read this book. Then we hunted for the recycled symbol all around the house. We discussed the things that can be recycled and the things we own that are made of recycled material.

Then we made bird feeders from recycled milk jugs. After they dried I hung them outside and the girls went out in the freezing cold to fill them.

"Put some pants on under your dresses."
"No, we'll just run really fast."
"Okay."

Anna walked to the tree and back. She wasn't interested in staying out in the cold. I was impressed that the other two stuck it out, found the car, and moved it to the tree to use as a step stool. It took some time and it was cold.

Ellie saw some birds eating this morning, but she scared them when she yelled at us to come look of course.

Wednesday
We're just playing catch up on our normal school work today since we skipped it in favor of other stuff on Monday and Tuesday. We might watch Lorax while I make dinner to keep with the Earth Day theme of the week. Or maybe we'll watch some of the Curious George episodes that have to do with recycling.

Book Junkie

Yes, I am confessing. I am a book junkie. I always wanted the library room from the movie Candleshoe. I went to two used curriculum sales in the last week. Dangerous, dangerous territory for a book junkie. I went in with low expectations. I told myself to only look for the handful of things I was already planning on buying so I didn't expect to find anything. First sale I scored:

I was planning on buying the Story of the World books as well as the Trail Guide To U.S. Geography, the rest were cheap bonuses. I stuck mostly to my plan. I picked up another book not in this picture for a friend because the price was so good. This sale was busy, packed with people. Lots of bumping and feeling pushed away from tables. I only spent $4 on my extras, though. Good on me.

Last night I went to the other sale...... I was weak.....

In my defense a lot of these things came out of free bins! Seriously! I was searching for the Singapore Primary Mathematics Level 1A and 1B, Who Owns the Sun, The Usborne Book of Everyday Words in Spanish, Usborne Time Traveler, The Well-Trained Mind and Beyond Five In A Row. I only spent about $10 more than I did at the first sale, but came away with so much more. The people at the second sale were chatty. They didn't want to take things back home so they were more likely to strike a deal. It was far less crowded and more conducive to book buying.

Some of these things would have been $20-45 and the most I paid for any one item was $10.

There is another sale next week, but I've gone through my little stash of cash :( Bummer. I'm fighting with myself. I would like to hit this other sale, but there's only two things I've got in mind that I really want. The chances of finding those two things are incredibly slim, but the likely hood of coming home with another armful of books is very high.

Have you ever found that ever elusive holy grail of books at a garage sale or used book store? What was it? How good of a deal did you get?

The One Fund - for Boston and the OKC Memorial Marathon

I've not seen anything in my facebook feed about this so I wanted to share it.

According to the Boston Marathon's Official Page there has been a charity set up for the victims of last week's bombing, The One Fund.

Please consider donating.

Also please don't let this affect attendance at our race next week. The Memorial Marathon is a week from today. It would be a shame to not show up and cheer on all the great people that trained and raised money for the memorial or the host of other charities that get pledges for training people for this race. I'm hoping to get down there next week to see a couple of my friends finish the half.

It was such a wonderful experience to cheer people on the last two years. I worked a water stop year before last and biked a few miles cheering on a good friend on course last year (Shhh... technically a big no no), but I've never gone to the finish. Quite honestly, I've never been to the Memorial. As a kid when the Murrah building was bombed it was hard to watch it all unfold on tv. It was constant coverage day after day after week. I've never felt the desire to visit the memorial even after becoming good friends with a survivor, but something changed after last week. Now, I want to. I also want to qualify for the Boston Marathon.

A few of my friends went to Boston last year which peeked my interest. I remembered looking at the qualifying times and then moving on to other things. I couldn't remember why I only gave it a fleeting glance. I looked at the qualifying times again today..... oh, that's why. I remember now. I decided it would go on the bucket list because there was NO way I would be able to qualify for my age group. I'll have to wait for when the expectations are lower. I want to do it though. I would hate to see attendance for a great race slump due to this.

Best of luck to my running peeps next week! Have a great race and hopefully I'll see some of you at the finish!

 Maybe I'll even get to cheer some of those who didn't get to finish the Boston race.

I Lost It

Yes, it, that precious piece of sanity that makes you the adult, the parent, the responsible one. And there it went. After asking twenty times for help picking up the house, being ignored, having a tongue stuck out at me, four tantrums, giving the pick it up or it's going in the trash ultimatum and still listening to them fight and argue instead of helping, I was done. Just completely, utterly done. I finished every other room of the house, grabbed my trash bag and proceeded to the toy room.

Amidst the screaming, tears and flailing of hands I shoved everything not in a box into the bag. I recommended that instead of screaming and fighting me that they attempt to save every piece they could... amazing how quickly they could move all of a sudden..... I filled an entire sack just the same. I handed it off to Chris who was taking out trash.

They began to scream at daddy. Chris pulled out his bandana from his pocket to hide the fact he was laughing. I quickly sent them to their rooms so they wouldn't see daddy laughing at their plight.

Chris took the trash to the street, refilled the litter boxes, hid the bag of toys in the back of the non running van (yes, it is obligatory for everyone in the country to have a car that doesn't work) in the driveway and came back inside. It was about this time that they began to calm down. They asked if he had thrown the bag away to which he answered it was gone. I was expecting another meltdown, but instead got a whimper. Then they asked to go play outside.

That's it. They came back some time later and asked if I wanted to see the castle they built out of bricks and mud. I'd already snapped this picture from the window of them all working so nicely together. It didn't ruin the day. They don't appear scarred for life. We went on to have lunch and watch a movie as a family.

I've suggested I would throw stuff away before, but in the end I would pick up most of it while Tamarin picked up some and Lemur picked up hardly anything. I had reached wits end finally. I could not bargain, argue, reason or yell anymore. It was time for drastic measures. Time will tell if it makes a change. I don't really expect it to, but I feel better knowing they are aware Mama means what she says.

Earthquakes, Tornadoes and Privacy

Earthquakes
I woke up yesterday morning with a shake. Oklahoma has quite a few earthquakes. They tell us we always have, but they've become more noticeable over the last few years. This one didn't wake anyone but me and Chris.

It was on the news when Tamarin woke up so she started asking questions. We looked over USGS's map of current earthquakes.

 I told her to give me her best confused look :)

I tried to explain plate tectonics simply, but despite my best efforts I couldn't bring it down to her level. While searching the internet for something on her level I found a few websites worth sharing though.

Plate Tectonics for older kids: Changing Earth: Plate Tectonics, Geography for Kids and Academic Kids. I opened up our Science Encyclopedia (which is no longer in print I guess, surprising I think it's a nice little encyclopedia) to the pages about the earth, volcanoes, plates, Pangaea, etc. Tamarin enjoyed looking through it. We left it at that.

Tornadoes
This morning we woke up talking about tornadoes. I cannot stand weather sooth-sayers on tv, but you can't help but listen to them a little bit. I wonder at what point will they realize you call wolf enough times people will eventually quit listening and end up seriously injured because of it.

We've discussed tornadoes a lot over the last two weeks since we've been talking weather, but today I pulled up some tornado videos. Tamarin thinks storm chasers are crazy :)

We finally did our tornado in a bottle! It was more difficult that it should have been, but my washer was too small and the duct tape couldn't get a good seal.... ergh. In the end I did get it to do what it was supposed to and they thought it was hilarious!

Privacy
When I started this blog I didn't think anyone would actually look at it. I figured some of my friends and homeschool peeps might look at it once in a while. Over the last few weeks I have seen a lot of traffic from places I would not have expected and overall hits are way up. Suddenly my little blog feels like a camera and I've been caught on the loo. I like being honest. I like telling you the good and crappy side of homeschooling and life with a bunch of kids and animals, but privacy has moved to the front of my mind.

I've gone back and changed the names of my kids to types of monkeys, sticking with the monkeys in the country title.

My oldest is now Tamarin

Second is Lemur

  
Third is Howler

Fourth is Capuchin

 

If you notice places I have missed a name please let me know. I will also be deleting comments this week where friends have used their real names. Please feel free to re-comment (or comment to begin with! I love seeing comments!) with the girls' fake names :)

Heifer International Unit Studies

If you've never heard of Heifer International, it's a global effort to get farm animals into the hands of those who need them most - people in less developed corners of the world who need animals to feed themselves and earn income. Before I had children I gave to this organization. I used to get their catalog, but eventually fell off their list of potential donors, I suppose, after so many years of not giving. I'd been donating through Global Giving the last few years so I'd basically forgotten about Heifer International. Then I went into the used book store this weekend and found these.

They come with unit study ideas, some dvds, and a picture book about how an animal has helped a family. I was in a hurry and didn't have the time to sit there examining the activities or dvds, but $5 for a hardcover children's book talking about the benefits of charitable giving sounded like a deal to me.

Turns out you can get all the resources for free on their website! Social studies, language arts, geography, and science all wrapped into one lesson. The videos AND the books are free to download EXCEPT for the one for 1st-2nd grade level. They look informative and fun, I'm glad I stumbled upon them.

You can find it all HERE.

Tornado Ready

I had a conversation with a friend the other day about children being scared of storms and whether the constant news coverage over every little storm added to that fear. I won't get into the discussion right now, but I thought I'd share my storm readiness approach with anyone who might be curious.

In the Shelter: When we moved the first thing we did (literally, first thing, before we picked out paint, locks, flooring) was get an installation date for a storm shelter. Here is our set up:

Folding chairs for each of us already set up
Suctioned bag with four blankets in it
Back up weather radio.
Children's toilet
Box of water bottles
5 gallon bucket.

"What's the bucket for?" You say. Five people, one itty bitty toilet. Math, anyone? Also a dehumidifying pouch (the little container beside the toilet). The one from last year was full when I pulled it out two weeks ago.

In the Bag: I have one bag that stays beside the door (or on a hanger in the coat closet near the door if no storms are eminent) with books, coloring books, crayons and normally three small flashlights (which have gone missing since the beginning of last week *sigh*). I make sure each kid has a set of galoshes by the door, which can be a struggle, ergh.

I have another bag that hangs out in the kitchen. This is where I keep the bribery. A candy (oreos), a junk food (cheetos), and a basic (crackers). I usually have a box of individual juice too, but the moment the girls saw it on the counter this week, they were gone. I'll have to open the next box and hide them in the bag. This is where I hang my reuseable grocery bags so this bag goes unnoticed by the gremlins :)

The shelter is close to the house and trees, I like to be prepared for a long stay just in case things fall on the door and we are unable to get out immediately following the storm.

Lastly and most importantly, when tornado season is upon us I take the girls into the shelter a few times to hang out so that they are acclimated to it. Nothing worse than telling kids, "Stay out of there!!" and then shoving them into said dark hole in a hurry in the middle of the night with rain and hail coming down around them.

Of course we plug in the phones and the kindle if bad weather is coming so that they will be fully charged and ready. Downloaded shows on the kindle have been a great asset on nights we end up down there.... except when we come out they want to stay up and finish watching the show.....

Update: I forgot to add this, I also take pictures of everything around the house every few months and upload the pictures to a free photo storing website under a locked and private folder. That way everything is there to see for insurance purposes.

What's on your list of necessities for storm season?

Weather Wrap Up

We took it easy the rest of the week. We read these books. Tamarin and I are almost done with Twister Trouble. I think I prefer the Magic School Bus books to Magic Tree House, in terms of quality of writing at least.


We did an umbrella craft. Well, it was supposed to be an umbrella. The girls told me the coffee filters looked more like clouds so they wanted to make a cloud craft instead of mimicking my umbrella.... Okay.....

I made a pair of these. They are going to go into the car since we noticed this week that we get the most diversity of clouds while driving. The girls were bored with them at home. I think this would be a fun thing to bring on long road trips.

We didn't focus on their names or anything, just observing that clouds can be different and that they mean different kinds of weather are coming.

We've got some notebooks for journaling schoolwork, but I'm going to pull out one specifically for Tamarin to write our science stuff in. I printed these vocabulary cards (two pages to each printed page because that's a LOT of ink :p) Monday we'll wrap up our weather stuff and I'll let her pick a few of these weather words to add to her science journal and encourage her to write something about each of them she chose.

I had hoped to get to this, but I kept forgetting to have Chris bring home 2 liters: Tornado in a Bottle.

If you are looking for ANYTHING about weather, chances are you'll find it on Weather Wiz Kids.